Archive or not?

I have my archives listed on my sitemap, but now I see that most of my search results in Google are [archive] rather than the "proper" post.

2 quesitons really. Would removing archives from the sitemap, clear up my search results and will they be classed as "duplicate" by Google?

Did you have vBSEO running from the very beginning of your site?

If not, they will likely be in there from when you did not have vBSEO. They will eventually disappear.

I've been wondering this as well, I really want to link the full version in google because the archive looks horrible, I have some ad plugin I added to test for the archive and I can't figure out how to remove it

But, I've noticed them browsing the archive quite a bit.

I have the archive enabled for guests only, and vbSEO set to rewrite +301 direct, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea? When I click on a link it still takes me to the archived version

Originally Posted by Ace Shattock

Did you have vBSEO running from the very beginning of your site?

If not, they will likely be in there from when you did not have vBSEO. They will eventually disappear.

Not sure if you read my question the way it was meant, but are you saying I should remove the archives from SEO and from the sitemap? If so what should the settings be?

Oh and are archives (or the proper posts) classed as duplicate content?

removing archives from sitemaps will not clear them from search results.
depending on your settings,google may see archives as duplicate content.

Thanks - what settings would I need to ensure they are not seen as duplicate?

In vbulletin admincp
Search Engine Friendly Archive > Display Simple View of Threads to NO
and in vbseocp
vB's Archive Options > Rewrite + 301 Redirect Archive Pages

Originally Posted by optrex

Oh and are archives (or the proper posts) classed as duplicate content?

They are duplicate content. You should eliminate the chance of getting the same content spidered at muliple urls.

What if they're rewritten and 301'd though?

so in vBulletin itself am I better off turning off the "search engine friendly archive" altogether ???

If that is the case, then what is the point or purpose of them? Will my rankings etc be affected from turning them off? Is it the RIGHT thing to do?

is there any way to make it so threads past a certain point cannot be accessed outside of the archive? my site really depends on the archive for a large chunk of our adsense clicks, and i don't want to be penalized for dupe content.